Missoula County Attorney Handling Hate Crime Against Jewish Family

The Missoula County Attorney's Office had an atypically slow week, but, according to County Attorney Pabst, there was a local hate crime incident.

"We filed 11 new complaints this last week," Pabst said. "two of those were crimes against people: one of those was a partner family member assault/tampering with a communication device case that involved a domestic situation that occurred sadly in the presence of a five year old child. There was also a disorderly conduct/hate crime that we charged."

Pabst says the hate crime incident normally would have been a "misdemeanor disorderly conduct," but because of the victim's religion and because the crime revolved around the victim's religion it was treated as a hate crime. Pabst says the suspect wrote something targeting Jewish people on her car and then deliberately pulled the car in front of a Jewish family.

"There was also an aggravated DUI, in which the defendant allegedly crashed into the Town Pump Flying J. There were four property crimes, a theft, a burglary, a trespass, a criminal mischief, and four administrative crimes including a resisting arrest."

11 complaints is on the low side for Missoula County, which often has up to 20 cases a week.